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= Assassination of Lord Mountbatten =
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Introduction
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Lord Mountbatten, a retired British statesman and cousin to Queen
Elizabeth II, was assassinated on 27 August 1979 off the coast of
Mullaghmore, Ireland. Thomas McMahon, an Irish republican and a
volunteer for the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), planted a
bomb on Mountbatten's boat, the cabin cruiser 'Shadow V', during
Mountbatten's annual summer trip to Classiebawn Castle, his house on
the Mullaghmore Peninsula.
The IRA had planned the attack for several months. A bomb team, which
included McMahon, constructed a device containing 50 lb of the
explosive gelignite. McMahon placed this on 'Shadow V' on the night of
26 August 1979 before he and his accomplice, Francis McGirl, drove
away. They were arrested during a routine stop 80 mi from Mullaghmore.
McGirl did not have the papers to prove his identity or ownership of
the car, and so both men were held by the Garda Síochána, the Irish
national police force.
The bomb was detonated less than two hours later, killing Mountbatten,
his grandson Nicholas and Nicholas's grandmother Doreen. Also killed
was Paul Maxwell, a boy who was crewing for Mountbatten. Three other
passengers were severely injured. When news of the bombing broke,
McMahon and McGirl were charged. Five hours after the bomb went off,
the IRA ambushed a British Army patrol with two roadside bombs,
killing eighteen British soldiers. The attacks were condemned by world
leaders and by the media in both the UK and Ireland.
The investigation by the Garda Síochána found traces of nitroglycerine
and ammonium nitrate, two of the ingredients of gelignite, on the
clothing of McMahon and McGirl. The tests also found flakes of green
and white paint, which matched the paint from 'Shadow V', on McMahon's
boots and jacket, and sand from Mullaghmore in his boots' treads.
McMahon was sentenced to life imprisonment in November 1979; McGirl
was acquitted.
The bombing led to Margaret Thatcher, the British prime minister,
changing the UK's strategy towards Northern Ireland. She introduced an
approach in which the intelligence services took a more active role;
she appointed Maurice Oldfield as an inter-service intelligence
co-ordinator. Donations to NORAID, the US-based organisation that
raised funds for the IRA, declined. American intelligence and law
enforcement became more proactive in investigating IRA arms
procurement in the US, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation set up
a specialist unit to combat weapons smuggling to Ireland.
The Troubles in the late 1970s
================================
The Troubles were the conflict in Northern Ireland between unionists
(mostly Ulster Protestants) and republicans (mostly Irish Catholics),
which began in the late 1960s. The unionists--also known as
loyalists--want Northern Ireland to remain within the United Kingdom;
republicans want Northern Ireland to leave the UK and join a united
Ireland.
The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) was a paramilitary group
that wanted to bring about Irish reunification through armed struggle.
In 1976 they assassinated Christopher Ewart-Biggs, the British
ambassador to Ireland, in Dublin. Two IRA gunmen shot dead Sir Richard
Sykes, the British ambassador in The Hague in March 1979; that month
Airey Neave, the Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, was
assassinated by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA)--a rival
republican paramilitary group to the IRA--in a car bomb attack in the
Palace of Westminster. Neave had been the political mentor and a close
friend of Margaret Thatcher--the leader of the Opposition--and had run
her campaign when she was elected to lead the Conservative Party in
1975. Thatcher was described by her biographer Jonathan Aitken as
being "numb with shock" at the news of his death.
Lord Mountbatten
==================
Lord Mountbatten was a British statesman, Royal Navy officer and
cousin to Queen Elizabeth II. He was a member of the prominent
Battenberg family, a great-grandson of Queen Victoria, the maternal
uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and a second cousin of King
George VI. Mountbatten saw service in the Royal Navy during the First
World War and was appointed Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia
Command, in the Second World War, where he oversaw the recapture of
Burma (December 1944 - August 1945) and Singapore (September 1945)
from the Japanese. He later served as the last viceroy of India and
briefly as the first governor-general of the Dominion of India. During
the 1950s he was the commander-in-chief of the British Mediterranean
Fleet and NATO Commander Allied Forces Mediterranean and First Sea
Lord. He then served as the chief of the defence staff until 1965, and
for a year as the chairman of the NATO Military Committee.
Mountbatten had spent thirty years holidaying during the summer at
Classiebawn Castle on the Mullaghmore Peninsula near Cliffoney, County
Sligo, Ireland. The castle was a country house built for Lord
Palmerston and was owned by Lady Mountbatten. Mountbatten kept the 28
ft cabin cruiser 'Shadow V', which he used for fishing, in the local
harbour; the boat was largely unguarded.
Thomas McMahon and Francis McGirl
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Thomas McMahon, a carpenter who lived in Carrickmacross, County
Monaghan, was one of the IRA's explosives officers in south County
Armagh. An Garda Síochána had no record of him being a republican
activist, although he had been detained several years prior to the
bombing when he was found in possession of an IRA constitution; he had
appeared in the Republic of Ireland's Special Criminal Court twice,
accused of IRA membership, but was acquitted on both occasions. He was
known to be friends with Seán Mac Stíofáin and Seamus Twomey, both
former IRA chiefs of staff. McMahon was also a suspect in the 1974
Birmingham pub bombings.
McMahon's accomplice was Francis McGirl; he lived in Ballinamore,
County Leitrim, where he was a gravedigger. He was the nephew of John
Joe McGirl, a former IRA chief of staff.
Build-up and McMahon's actions
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Because of his connection to the royal family, the IRA had considered
the assassination of Mountbatten since 1970. When asked if he was
concerned he could be a target for the IRA, Mountbatten dismissed the
threat and insisted on light military and police protection, saying
"what would they want with an old man like me?" From the start of the
Troubles he was given a twelve-man security detail, which had risen to
twenty-eight by 1974. The detail comprised uniformed and plainclothes
members of the Garda Síochána, the Irish Special Branch and the
British Special Air Service (SAS). Mountbatten disliked close security
and refused to allow members of his Garda protection detail onto his
boat, or to be nearby in a speedboat when he went out fishing.
In the early 1970s a plan to kill Mountbatten was cancelled by the IRA
leadership because of the risk to civilians. In 1976 steps were taken
to assassinate him, but an IRA ceasefire stopped the operation; in
August 1978 a plan to shoot him on board his boat did not proceed
because the choppy waters made a sniper shot too difficult. According
to the journalist Annabel Ferriman, following the assassination of
Airey Neave by the INLA, "a counter-coup by the IRA was felt by them
to be necessary". With increased threats against him, the police
advised Mountbatten not to holiday in Ireland in 1979; Maurice
Oldfield--who had been the director of MI6 until 1978--advised him
that members of the royal family were being targeted.
The IRA planned the attack on Mountbatten for several months. While
some constructed the bomb, others focused on reconnaissance. They
reported that a planned boat trip on Monday 27 August to Mountbatten's
lobster pots was probably the last opportunity to bomb him on the boat
that year. The bombers--which included McMahon--constructed a device
containing 50 lb of gelignite. In 2024 the former IRA commander
Michael Hayes stated that he had been the explosives expert who built
the bomb, aided by McMahon.
During Mountbatten's 1979 holiday an SAS corporal on his protection
detail reported that 'Shadow V' was a soft target that was kept in a
publicly accessible harbour. The corporal also reported seeing a car
with Belfast number plates whose driver appeared to be watching the
boat. The car was recognised as one that had previously been used to
carry IRA bombs, but no action was taken.
On the night of 26-27 August 1979 the bomb was planted on 'Shadow V';
it contained a radio-controlled detonator and was placed below where
Mountbatten was known to sit on board. Several sources state McMahon
was the one who planted the device; others say it was McGirl that did
so. The two men then got into a yellow Ford Cortina to travel to
Strokestown, County Roscommon, with McGirl driving. They then switched
to a second car, a red Ford Escort. At 9:55 am the car was stopped 80
mi from Mullaghmore by Garda James Lohan, who was conducting routine
vehicle tax and insurance checks in the town of Granard, County
Longford. McGirl gave a false name and said he had no papers or
identification on him; Lohan was suspicious of McGirl's story as to
why he was driving a car that did not belong to him, and he noticed
the driver's hands were shaking. Lohan took both men into custody in
the nearby Garda station.
Assassination
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At 11:15 am on 27 August, Mountbatten left Classiebawn Castle and
travelled the fifteen minutes to the local harbour where 'Shadow V'
was kept. He was accompanied by his daughter Lady Patricia Brabourne,
her husband Lord Brabourne, their twin sons Timothy and Nicholas
Knatchbull, the twins' paternal grandmother Doreen Knatchbull (the
Dowager Lady Brabourne) and Paul Maxwell, a fifteen-year-old from
Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, who was working as a boatboy. Police
accompanied them from the castle to the boat and then drove to watch
them from the nearby clifftop.
After ten minutes' sailing the boat reached the lobster pots, where it
slowed; Mountbatten was at the helm. As it reached the pots, the bomb
was detonated by remote control from the shore by an unknown man using
the modified controls for a model aeroplane. The explosion lifted the
boat out of the water and completely destroyed it. Maxwell and
Nicholas Knatchbull were both killed instantly. Mountbatten's legs
were almost completely blown off and he was thrown into the water face
down, still alive. In 2009 Timothy Knatchbull recalled the explosion:
My grandfather was at the helm three or four feet behind me and
slightly to my right. The gelignite under the deck must have been
between us because as we rose into the air we went in different
directions. I remember a sensation, as if I had been hit with a club,
and a tearing sound. I do not remember my journey through the air or
hitting the water but before the debris finished raining down, I was
unconscious and about a hundred feet from my grandfather.
Detective Henry, one of the Garda officers, was watching from the
cliffs. He recalled that:
The noise was tremendous, terrifying. There was a huge
mushroom-shaped cloud of smoke and multi-coloured flashes. This cloud
rose high above me, and then started to disappear. There was debris in
the sky and on the sea and I was hit with a huge shower of sea-spray.
I could hear screams of panic and pain.
Local fishing boats were quickly at the scene. Mountbatten was still
breathing when he was pulled from the water, but died within minutes.
Doreen Knatchbull was badly injured when she was rescued. By the time
the boats returned to Mullaghmore harbour, two doctors--on holiday
from Belfast--had improvised a first aid post; locals provided doors
for use as makeshift stretchers and broom handles for splints. The
wounded were transported to Sligo General Hospital. Timothy Knatchbull
and Doreen Knatchbull were the more serious casualties; they were the
first to be operated on. She was operated on through the night, but
died from internal injuries and shock the following morning. Lord
Brabourne had badly broken legs, which were saved by surgeons. The IRA
claimed responsibility five hours after the bombing.
Warrenpoint
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The same day as Mountbatten's assassination, the IRA attacked the
British Army at Narrow Water Castle outside Warrenpoint, County Down,
on the east coast of the island, near the Irish border. The IRA South
Armagh Brigade set off a 1100 lb roadside bomb packed into milk
churns. This exploded at 4:40 pm as an army convoy drove past. Six
members of the Parachute Regiment were killed instantly. The remains
of the convoy then came under gunfire from a position on the Irish
side of the border.
Reinforcements, including medics, were sent and a command point was
set up at the castle's gatehouse. At 5:12 pm a second bomb, placed in
milk churns at the gatehouse, exploded; ten men from the Parachute
Regiment and two from the Queen's Own Highlanders were killed. This
was a 1000 lb device operated by a decoder device in a Tupperware box.
The explosion was so fierce that all that was found of the senior
officer who had arrived with the reinforcements--Lieutenant Colonel
David Blair, the commanding officer of the Queen's Own
Highlanders--was one of his epaulettes. Eighteen soldiers were killed
in the two explosions, sixteen of whom were from the Parachute
Regiment: it was the biggest loss of life in a single incident for the
latter since the Second World War.
Reactions
======================================================================
The assassination was condemned by world leaders. Jack Lynch, the
taoiseach, said he was "horrified and saddened" by the killing, adding
that the IRA "has brought death and sorrow to many thousands of
innocent people and shame to all true Irish men and women". The US
Department of State said: "Americans will especially recall his great
contribution to our common cause in World War II as well as his many
services to this country and to the world since then." Pope John Paul
II was due to visit both Ireland and Northern Ireland, with a trip to
Armagh, but the Northern Ireland part was cancelled following what the
Vatican described as "the brutal crimes" of the attacks on Mountbatten
and the Warrenpoint ambush; the Pope described the assassination as
"an insult to human dignity". Three days of state mourning were
announced in Burma (now Myanmar), while in India a week of mourning
was observed.
The British press condemned the attack, with the tabloid press
expressing rage in their headlines, including the front page headlines
in 'The Daily Express' ("These Evil Bastards") and 'The Sun' ("May the
Bastards Rot in Hell"). ' ('The Republic')--the republican newspaper
published by Sinn Féin, the political party associated with the
IRA--carried a statement from the IRA in which they described the
murders as "a discriminate act to bring to the attention of the
English people the continuing occupation of our country". The
statement continued:
The British Army acknowledge that after ten years of war it cannot
defeat us but yet the British government continue with the oppression
of our people and the torture of our comrades in the H-Blocks. Well,
for this we will tear out their sentimental, imperialist heart.
The Irish media was also condemnatory of the attack; in 'The Irish
Press', Tim Pat Coogan wrote that the IRA's statement contained:
Not a word of sympathy for the victims, two of them mere children,
not a hint of regret, not a scintilla of compassion. Murder, whatever
the supposed cause, never can be justified. But the murder of Lord
Mountbatten--and that, it needs to be emphasised, is what it was--was
particularly cruel. A friend of this country ... a friendly, genial
man, popular with local people, blown to pieces while on one of his
regular visits to this country. ... In their statement the
Provisionals talk of his murder as "an execution". The execution of a
79-year-old man? Such hypocrisy will sicken and disgust all Irish
people.
Thatcher--prime minister of the newly elected government--hypothesised
that the bombers had some links with Libya. Investigations by the
security services showed no such connection, and that there was "no
evidence that any member of this team has visited Libya". The
counter-terrorism consultant Andy Oppenheimer states the IRA received
£2 million from Syria, through a contact in the Palestine Liberation
Organisation, for the murder of Mountbatten and other acts. Others had
different theories: James Molyneaux--the leader of the Ulster Unionist
Party (UUP)--and Enoch Powell--the UUP MP for South Down--alleged
involvement by the American Central Intelligence Agency in
Mountbatten's death, as part of a scheme to get Ireland to join NATO,
although this was deemed nothing more than a conspiracy theory.
The British government had pressed the government of Ireland over the
cross-border aspect of IRA activity for some time; the death of
Mountbatten in Ireland and the shooting at the survivors from south of
the border at Warrenpoint, Britain argued, proved it. Thatcher asked
Lynch to take action in the wake of the two attacks. The requested
measures included closer cooperation between MI6 and the Irish Special
Branch; that members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) could
attend Garda interviews of suspects; and to allow British helicopters
to fly up to 15 km into Irish airspace in pursuit of IRA units. Lynch
allowed overflights of up to 5 km; when news of this became public, he
was forced to resign.
Investigation and trial
======================================================================
The Garda collected the debris from the boat, including using diver
units to recover the engine and parts of the bomb, which were in 30 ft
of water; the aim was to rebuild the boat to establish the type of
device used. The forensic investigation was headed by James Donovan,
Ireland's most senior forensic scientist.
On 29 August McMahon and McGirl appeared in the Special Criminal Court
in Dublin. They were released on a technicality but rearrested
straight away and charged with being members of the IRA; the following
day they were charged with the murders. Forensic tests showed traces
of nitroglycerine and ammonium nitrate, two of the ingredients of
gelignite, on the clothing of both men. The tests also found flakes of
green and white paint, which matched the paint from 'Shadow V', on
McMahon's boots and jacket, and sand from Mullaghmore in his boots'
treads.
The case against McMahon and McGirl opened on 5 November 1979 at the
Special Criminal Court. The trial concluded on 23 November; McMahon
was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. McGirl, on whom
no traces of paint or explosives were located, was acquitted. McMahon
reappeared in court in January 1980 on the separate charge of being a
member of the IRA. He swore on oath that he was not a member, and had
not been so at the time of the bombing; the charges were dismissed.
Funerals
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Maxwell's funeral took place on 29 August 1979 in Enniskillen. On 6
September the joint funeral of Lady Brabourne and Nicholas Knatchbull
took place at the family church in Mersham, Kent.
Mountbatten's ceremonial funeral was held on 5 September 1979 at
Westminster Abbey, under tight security; he had planned his funeral
for over ten years and it reflected all aspects of his life. It was
attended by the Queen, members of the royal family, members of
fourteen other royal houses, Thatcher, all of her surviving
predecessors and Lynch. Thousands of people turned out for the funeral
procession, which began at Wellington Barracks, including
representatives of the three services and military contingents from
France, Burma, India, Canada and the US. His coffin was carried on the
State Funeral Gun Carriage and was also accompanied by 118 members of
the Royal Navy. The funeral service was televised on BBC1 and the
Prince of Wales read Psalm 107. Mountbatten was buried in Romsey
Abbey, Hampshire, on the same day.
Legacy
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Thatcher was only four months into her premiership when the
assassination and the deaths at Warrenpoint occurred. According to
Eamonn Kennedy, the Irish ambassador to the UK between 1978 and 1983,
Mountbatten's murder--and that of Neave and those of British
soldiers--"left deep psychological scars" on what he called Thatcher's
"Irish outlook". Although she wanted to focus on domestic economic
matters, the events ensured that Northern Ireland occupied a central
place in her political agenda and she visited the region at the end of
August 1979. There was a political struggle between the army and the
RUC as to which should be the primary force countering terrorism in
Northern Ireland. Rather than undertake any heavy-handed measures,
which had backfired in the past, Thatcher introduced an approach in
which the intelligence services took a more active role and appointed
Maurice Oldfield--the former director of MI6--as an inter-service
intelligence co-ordinator.
Mountbatten's murder led to a loss of sympathy for the IRA's cause
among the Irish-American community. This brought about a further
decline in donations to NORAID, the US-based organisation that raised
funds for the IRA; donations had been falling since the mid-1970s. The
murder resulted in an increased awareness within US intelligence
circles of IRA arms procurement. In May 1980 the FBI established a
unit in New York to investigate those smuggling weapons between the
east coast of the US and Ireland.
In March 1995 McGirl was driving a tractor when it overturned, killing
him instantly. While in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, McMahon renounced his
connection with the IRA. After nineteen years in prison he was paroled
from his life sentence in 1998 under the terms of the Good Friday
Agreement, as part of the Northern Ireland peace process. In 2021 Mary
Lou McDonald, the leader of Sinn Féin, apologised for the
assassination.
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